The English Utilitarians, Volume 2 (of 3): James Mill — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The English Utilitarians, Volume 2 (of 3): James Mill
John Stuart Mill · en
After 1830 Mill wrote the severe fragment on Mackintosh, which, after
a delay caused by Mackintosh's death, appeared in 1835. He contributed
some articles to the _London Review_, founded by Sir W. Molesworth, as
an organ of the 'philosophical Radicals,' and superintended, though
not directly edited, by J. S. Mill. These, his last performances,
repeat the old doctrines. It does not appear, indeed, that Mill ever
altered one of his opinions. He accepted Bentham's doctrine to the
end, as unreservedly as a mathematician might accept Newton's
_Principia_.
Mill's lungs had begun to be affected. It was supposed that they were
injured by the dust imbibed on coach journeys to Mickleham. He had a
bad attack of hæmorrhage in August 1835, and died peacefully on 23rd
June 1836.
What remains to be said of Mill personally may be suggested by a
noticeable parallel. S. T. Coleridge, born about six months before
Mill, died two years before him. The two lives thus coincided for more
than sixty years, and each man was the leader of a school. In all else
the contrast could hardly be greater. If we were to apply the rules of
ordinary morality, it would be entirely in Mill's favour. Mill
discharged all his duties as strenuously as a man could, while
Coleridge's life was a prolonged illustration of the remark that when
an action presented itself to him as a duty he became physically
incapable of doing it. Whatever Mill undertook he accomplished, often
in the face of enormous difficulties. Coleridge never finished
anything, and his works are a heap of fragments of the prolegomena to
ambitious schemes. Mill worked his hardest from youth to age, never
sparing labour or shirking difficulties or turning aside from his
path. Coleridge dawdled through life, solacing himself with opium, and
could only be coaxed into occasional activity by skilful diplomacy.
Mill preserved his independence by rigid self-denial, temperance, and
punctuality. Coleridge was always dependent upon the generosity of his
friends. Mill brought up a large family, and in the midst of severe
labours found time to educate them even to excess. Coleridge left his
wife and children to be cared for by others. And Coleridge died in the
odour of sanctity, revered by his disciples, and idolised by his
children; while Mill went to the grave amidst the shrugs of
respectable shoulders, and respected rather than beloved by the son
who succeeded to his intellectual leadership.